The deployment of fiber to the home (FTTH) service is occurring at an increasingly rapid pace around the world, as service providers rush to offer greater bandwidth to customers. Installed cost is a significant concern for such service providers. Link loss is the insertion loss of the fiber span between an optical line terminal at a central office and the optical network unit at the subscriber dwelling. Additional connectors or splices are needed at the transition between cable types, and may be necessary when passing from outdoors (i.e. outside of a dwelling) to indoors (i.e. inside of a dwelling). Alternatively, a drop cable can be routed indoors within a conduit for a segment of the length, transitioned to a smaller cable with a splice or connection point, and then routed on the surface of the wall for the remaining segment. Each of these types of terminations adds to link loss, and further adds to the link budget, degrading performance and adding to electronics cost necessary for installation.
It is often necessary to drill large holes to pass a connector end of a pre-terminated drop cable through a dwelling wall. Additionally, appearance of the installed product inside of the dwelling is a key concern for homeowners and landlords. Poorly routed and stapled cables detract from a property's value. The size of the cable which is exposed to the tenant if surface mounted can detract from the décor of the room. Further, installing fiber to the home is a disruption to the homeowner's space. It is critical for an installer to be able to quickly complete an installation with minimal noise, drilling, dust or other intrusions.
The presently described invention addresses all of the concerns discussed above, limiting link loss and budget, avoiding the necessity of large holes to route a drop cable into a dwelling, providing an aesthetically pleasing solution, and minimizing disruption to a homeowner during installation.